


I Wanna Be Your Lover

by WrathoftheStag (Mwuahna)



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alana is a meanie, Hannibal Loves Will, Hannibal is a Cannibal, M/M, Pining Hannibal, Post-Episode: s03e07 Digestivo, before wrath of the lamb, bernadette the orderly is hanni's friend, everyone loves prince, hannibal is at the BSHCI, idiot in love, kind of sort of - Freeform, prince - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:10:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6665356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mwuahna/pseuds/WrathoftheStag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal becomes obsessed with a certain Prince song while he's in the BSHCI, and he's not quite sure what to do with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Wanna Be Your Lover

**Author's Note:**

> Prince and David Bowie were my musical everything. I've loved them both for almost my entire life. This is my ode to Prince. Good night, sweet Prince. 
> 
> A companion piece to [This Serious Moonlight](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5771458).

For the most part, Bernadette enjoyed her job as an orderly at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. The pay was good, every day presented a new adventure, the head of the hospital was competent (with occasional poor judgement), and then there was Hannibal Lecter. What a hot mess of a hot man that was.

Most people feared Lecter, and Barney had told her several times to watch her back where he was concerned, but Bernadette had known quite a bit about love in her time and she knew the face of a broken heart when she saw one. And Hannibal Lecter was, at end of the day, a man in love with a broken heart -- and for that reason alone, she felt sorry for him. 

During a routine inspection of Hannibal’s cell, Bernadette stood behind Hannibal as her phone suddenly began to ring. She cursed herself for not putting it on vibrate as Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” began to fill the cell. 

_I wanna be your lover_  
_I wanna be the only one that makes you come running_  
_I wanna be your lover_  
_I wanna turn you on, turn you out,_  
_all night long make you shout_  
_Oh, lover! Yeah_

“Pardon me,” she said to no one in particular as she fumbled for the cell in her back pocket to silence it. Hannibal craned his neck from his restraints to look over to Bernadette as she smiled shyly at him, pressing the off button.

The following day, it was Bernadette’s shift to sit on the other side of Hannibal’s cell and watch him for a few hours. This was Alana Bloom’s subtle "torture" of Hannibal, taking several hours of privacy from him by placing an orderly in the room to just _watch_ him. It didn’t bother Hannibal in the least, much to Alana’s disappointment but to discontinue the ritual would signal a defeat, so the vigil continued.

The other orderlies would sit uncomfortably during their shift as Hannibal would drill into them with his cold stare, but Bernadette didn’t mind her time there. She would sneak in a book or just watch Hannibal draw, which he would allow. There were worse things to look at, after all, than a beautiful man drawing beautiful things.

“Ms. Bernadette,” Hannibal had said as he continued to draw, “the other day, your cell phone played a song.”

Bernadette looked up, somewhat started that Hannibal was speaking to her, “Yes, it did.”

Hannibal shaded Will’s face with the charcoal he was holding, and said without glancing up, “What was that?”

“Oh,” she said looking around the room somewhat cautiously, “That was Prince. You know Prince, right?”

“Prince? Ah, yes. That androgynous performer that sings about sex.”

Bernadette chuckled, “Yes, that's him alright.”

“I was...interested in what the song was saying. Very simple, yet direct.”

“Direct. Definitely Prince.”

“I would very much like to listen to the rest of it.” He put his charcoal down, and gazed directly at her, tilting his head slightly to the right.

“You want to listen to Prince?”

“I would like to listen to that song. What did you say the name was?”

“I didn’t...it’s, um, ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover.’” Bernadette blushed saying it.

“Yes, well that does make sense. I Wanna Be Your Lover.”

Bernadette bit her lip and desperately tried to control her facial expression. Hearing Hannibal Lecter utter the words, “I wanna be your lover,” was definitely not anything she’d thought she be hearing today -- or any other day for that matter.

“Well, I suppose it would be okay, but if Dr. Bloom objects I’m afraid I won’t be able to share any more music with you.”

“That is completely reasonable. We wouldn’t want to upset Dr. Bloom, now would we?” Hannibal purred.

Bernadette blushed again thinking to herself _Sounds good, you fine little mother _, and looked down to search for the song on her phone.__

“Here it is,” she put the volume all the way up and pressed play. Hannibal stood, walked away from this desk and up to the glass to listen. He closed his eyes for the duration of the song. Bernadette watched with equal parts fascination, horror, and incredulity.

When it was over, neither of them said a word. Hannibal with his eyes still closed, turned back from Bernadette and slowly walked to his cot where he sat down then reclined. He remained silent for the rest of Bernadette’s watch.

**+++**

Bernadette was punching out for the day when Alana walked up behind her, startling Bernadette.

“Oh, Dr. Bloom. I didn’t see you there. Is everything okay?”

“This afternoon, during your watch shift, I saw on the monitor that Dr. Lecter was speaking to you, and then you did something with your phone. What was that all about?”

Bernadette didn’t like the look in Dr. Bloom’s eyes. She knew enough about people to recognize a look of scorn, hatred, and fear in their faces. This woman had a personal agenda against Lecter, and Bernadette did not like it. She didn’t approve of conflicts of interest.

“He was talking about music -- I couldn’t say why really, but it was Mozart, and I told him I didn’t really listen to classical music. He asked what songs do I like, so I played one. He wasn't impressed. He looked annoyed to be honest.”

“What did you play?” Alana asked with her arms crossed in front of her.

“The first thing I could find on my phone. Prince.”

Alana smiled, “I bet he must have hated that. Good. Play some more the next time you’re in there.”

Bernadette looked at Alana’s smile and said, “Sounds good. I will. Good bye, Dr. Bloom. See you tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Alana replied.

**+++**

Hannibal’s thoughts led back to Will, as they did every time for almost every reason. He strolled through the rooms of his mind palace searching for Will, finding him in his usual spot -- casually thrown on the chaise longue near the window. The sunlight hitting him just so, creating a beautiful chiaroscuro on his body.

Hannibal walked up to him, knelt in front of him and taking Will by the hand said, “I wanna be your brother. I wanna be your mother and your sister, too. There ain’t no other, that can do the things that I’ll do to you.” Will smiled and began to stroke Hannibal’s hair.

Hannibal sat up in his cot, eyes flying open. “How curious,” he said to his empty cell, then sighed and lowered himself down again.

**+++**

“Ms. Bernadette, pleasure to see you again.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Dr. Lecter,” Bernadette said as she settled into her chair with a cup of coffee in one hand.

About 30 minutes had passed without anything unusual transpiring. Hannibal had been reading a book on Derrida and noticed he had read the same sentence three times in a row. He sighed and then looked to Bernadette who was reading a book of poetry by Nikki Giovanni.

“Ms. Bernadette,” Hannibal said rising from his chair and walking toward the glass.

“Yes?”

“Do you have your cellular with you?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Would you mind terribly -- that is, could you…”

“You want to hear that Prince song again, Doctor?”

“Thank you,” Hannibal replied and stood with his eyes closed.

Bernadette looked at him and then pulled up the song on her cell. She pressed play and contemplated Hannibal. This man, this crazed, murderous man was definitely in love and had it _bad_. So bad, that he was connecting with Prince on a spiritual level. She knew Prince was good. Baby, that man could connect with anyone but this...this was borderline unbelievable. 

_And I get discouraged_  
_'cause I never see you anymore_  
_And I need your love, babe yeah_  
_That's all I'm living for, yeah_  
_I didn't wanna pressure you, baby_  
_But all I ever wanted to do_  
_I wanna be your lover_  
_I wanna be the only one that makes you come running_

**+++**

That night, Hannibal sat at his desk and pulled out a sheet of stationery from the drawer. This song, this odd song had begun to consume him.

> _Dearest Will,_
> 
> _I can see that the seasons are changing, and wonder what it is that you are doing. Will you still be fishing for a few more weeks? Running with your dogs through the woods, breathing in the cold air that numbs you from the world you’ve created for yourself. The world that is not real._

Hannibal exhaled loudly, and looked at the words on his paper with annoyance. He then continued to write...

> _And I get discouraged, because I never see you anymore. And I need your love, babe yeah. That's all I'm living for, yeah. I didn't wanna pressure you, baby. But all I ever wanted to do...I wanna be your lover. I wanna be the only one that makes you come running. I wanna be your lover._  
> 

Hannibal stopped and stared at the words on the paper, and began to laugh hysterically. How could something so basic connect with him like this? He blamed Will Graham -- for everything...again. Damn him. When the laughter subsided, he ripped the paper into tiny shreds and flushed half of it down the toilet, the other half he threw in his wastebasket.

Hannibal walked over to his cot and plopped himself on it with one more loud sigh.

**+++**

“Good afternoon, Dr. Lecter.”

“Hello, Ms. Bernadette.”

Hannibal looked at Bernadette, feeling a flush begin to bloom on his face, “Ms. Bernadette…”

“Play it again, Sam?” Bernadette said softly.

“If you please,” Hannibal said closing his eyes once more.

_I wanna be your lover_  
_I wanna be the only one that makes you come running_  
_I wanna be your lover_  
_I wanna turn you on, turn you out, all night long make you shout_  
_Oh, lover! Yeah_  
_I wanna be the only one you come for, yeah..._

**Author's Note:**

> Love you Prince. 
> 
> Here is the video to [I Wanna Be Your Lover](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15zj5c_prince-i-wanna-be-your-lover-official-video_music).
> 
> Come say hi and visit me [on Tumblr](http://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com/).


End file.
